


Legend of Zelda: Locust Blade

by DoctorSoup



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Gen, headcanons ahoy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-04-03 18:00:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4109983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorSoup/pseuds/DoctorSoup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A year after the Twilight crisis, Hyrule once again faces an unknown danger; subjects have been disappearing without a trace in the Gerudo Desert and its surrounding areas. With new Royal support and the experience gained from the Twilight crisis, the Resistance is tasked with investigating. What they find, however, is something they aren't sure they're prepared to face; not without the help of an old friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Hero: Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> since nintendo has so RUDELY refused to do so, i have written a theoretical sequel to Twilight Princess. might've made the big bad a bit more straight-up deadly than more classical Zelda villains but... eh take it as you will. enjoy!

_In theory, The Mirror could be repaired, as the arcane properties are woven into the glass itself, rather than the object as a whole. Unfortunately, this would require the same magical obsidian and a sample of the original mirror. This author recommends further study if any more is to be learned about the nature of our Twili brethren._

\- From "On Dimensionality and Twilight" by Professor Shad of Hyrule

 

"And you came in here before?"

Link nodded with an affirmative grunt.

"During the Twilight Crisis," continued the cloaked Shad.

"Mhmm," hummed Link matter-of-factly.

Shad gave a look of absolute bewilderment as his eyes darted around the Arbiter's Grounds, the walls dimly lit by the lantern he carried. "For the love of the goddesses, Link, please use words. You're making me more nervous than I'd thought possible."

Link gave a snorting chuckle as he confidently trudged deeper into the decrepit prison. "Sorry, Shad. Guess I got too used to keeping quiet here."

"Well, I don't rightly blame you for doing so! What I question is how you retained any semblance of sanity after visiting this damnable place."

"You used a word I liked for it when you were fawning over that pillar outside."

"Resilience?"

"That's the one," Link held up a fist to Shad, who softly groaned. The latter brought up the lantern while the former drew his sword.

It was certainly no Master Sword, but it suited the hero well; with an ornate blue hilt inlaid with a magically-sensitive emerald that sent a faint shimmer up the broad blade. A gift from Rusl and the Resistance for his aid in felling Ganondorf.

A high-pitched clicking of bone on bone could be heard through the darkness, followed by a scraping of a rusted halberd on the sandstone floor. This sound multiplied until a small platoon of Stalkin swarmed slowly towards the two Hylians. Shad reached for his notebook out of habit more than necessity. Link could handle this and he was still a journeyman-level mage at best. It wasn’t worth the risk.

Link gave a wolfish grin and crouched low, keeping his sword pointed behind him and watching the Stalkin on their slow approach. They were quickly upon him and his muscles tripped like a coiled spring, sending him spinning and smashing effortlessly through all of the tiny skeletons with a bestial shout

Shad let out his breath, making Link laugh once again. “Shouldn’t the first Hyrulean Archmage in an age be a bit... Braver?”

He sighed, shaking his head. “One would assume. Need I remind you that the most complex spell I’ve mastered is Nayru’s Love? Which, in case you’ve forgotten, is a spell of protection.”

“But what about at Telma’s when you cast Din’s Fi-”

“We agreed not to talk about that anymore,” said Shad, eyes narrowing.

Link sheathed his blade and put up his hands defensively while heading towards a dark staircase.

"Furthermore," continued Shad, "I find it a bit disturbing how at ease you are, Link. People have been disappearing in case you'd forgotten."

Link gave a grim nod. He hadn't meant anything by his mood. It was simply better that he remain cool in the face of a crisis. Link consulted his map and pointed out their destination after a quick glance at their surroundings. Shad gathered what nerves he could and held the lantern at the door, ready to help Link with whatever lurked inside. Link pressed his palms to the stone door and pushed it up. The moment the seal between the door and ground was broken, locusts began crawling, swarming out of the room, pushing Link back and making Shad jump. The swarm was quick to dissipate, however, leaving the two of them confused as they peered into the blackness of the sub-basement chamber. "Shad?” Link said, “Light?"

Shad nodded and carefully swept around the corner to illuminate the room. First he noticed the smell: rank, metallic, and decaying. Second, the quality of the air. It felt warm and thick, tingling against the skin. When the lantern light cut through the shadows to reveal the room's contents, Shad's eyes went wide and he suddenly felt horribly sick.

The lantern hit the floor with a loud clang and Shad stumbled out, vomiting onto the cool sandstone just outside the door.

Link readied his weapon and stepped in, only to freeze himself upon the sight. Dozens of bodies, some of known missing persons and others so mutilated they were entirely unrecognizable, decorated the chamber in a grisly display. Locusts crawled on the walls and buzzed through the air, and deep gashes could be seen marring the binding circle on the ground and ruining the walls. Link couldn't speak, the only sounds besides the buzzing locusts being Shad sobbing behind him and dry heaving.

"L-Link..." he choked out, "We need to... to tell someone about this..."


	2. The Hero: Tribunal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link has confessed to releasing an unknown demon and has been brought before the Hyrulean royal court for judgement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright folks! Locust Blade is now in getting into swing. From now on unless I say otherwise, the work will update every Tuesday around noon central time. Thanks for reading!

_What we know of the Twili is limited to secondhand accounts, rumors, and conjecture. A common theory is that in the wake of Ganondorf’s conspiracy to usurp the Hyrulean throne and his execution, the vengeful Hylians fell upon the Gerudo for their role in sending the Demon King. This however, is highly unlikely, as the Gerudo have been proven to be compliant and even helpful to Hyrule._

\- From "On Dimensionality and Twilight" by Professor Shad of Hyrule

 

Zelda never imagined she would see Link so complacent or somber. In her experience he was always a fiery person, as quick to laughter as he was aggressive passion. Seeing him flanked by guards and disarmed in front of she and her court was shocking to say the least.

Shad’s eyes stayed on the black and white marble floor and his lips remained shut. One of the guards surrounding Link stepped forward and cleared his throat.

“Your Majesty, your Highness, Patriarch: We bring before this royal court squire Link of Ordon Village for the crimes of releasing an unknown demon and endangering the people of Hyrule,” he said loudly and clearly, “We recommend this act be treated as-”

Darbus slammed his massive stone fist on the courts table, causing the guard to jump. “Link is the finest warrior I’ve ever laid eyes on! The boy would never try to put anybody in danger that didn’t deserve it!” he protested.

Zelda held a gloved hand in his direction, nodding as an indication that he remain silent. “Our own opinion should not factor into the decision, Darbus,” she said evenly, “We will only pass judgement based on the truth.”

Darbus growled and squinted his eyes at her before sitting back down and gesturing at the startled guard. “Go on, then.”

“Y-Yes, Patriarch,” stuttered the guard, “We recommend this act be treated as incidental treason and be prosecuted as such.”

Zelda nodded slowly. “And you have evidence to this act of treason?”

“We have. To be presented by the ah… archmage.”

Darbus groaned “This guy…”

“Darbus!” Prince Ralis said from the other end of the table, “Shad doesn’t deserve that sort of treatment. Let him talk!” Behind him stood his advisor, a trusted friend of the Zora royal family, who nodded and whispered to the young prince.

Shad nervously stepped forward, clearing his dry throat and giving an apologetic look to Link, who only nodded in return as if to give him clearance to tell the court exactly what he saw. “I… Wish it to be known that Link volunteered for this tribunal. I, for one, believe him to be entirely innocent on the part of endangering Hyrule.”

“Your observations are noted, Archmage Shad,” hummed Zelda softly but clearly, “Please speak the case in as great detail as possible.”

He shifted a bit and cleared his throat once more, flipping open his notebook and reading from his prepared speech. “During the investigation of the disappearances of certain individuals in the former Arbiter’s Grounds prison, myself and Link of Ordon found a room meant to house a powerful demon or sorcerer. The walls were,” he wavered, coughing, “were adorned with the remains of several of the missing persons, and the room contained further remains of unidentifiable nature, presumed to be the others.”

The court seemed taken aback. Ralis’s eyes went wide, Darbus grimaced, and Zelda remained stone faced.

“They were placed in a meticulous and ritualistic manner, possibly as sacrifice to an unknown entity. When asked about his previous entrance into the prison, Link confirmed that a creature had been imprisoned in the room, and that he had set it free.” His book shut with an echo through the large hall.

“I… this seems pretty irrefutable…” muttered Ralis just audibly. Darbus ground his finger against the table, chewing his lip and darting his eyes around.

Zelda held her hand up again. “Anything else, Shad?”

“Yes, your Majesty. Link claims to have destroyed the creature within, so it is possible that it was an entirely different entity taking these people.”

They all paused, hoping for his story to continue and go more into Link’s favor, but hearing no such thing. Finally, Ralis spoke up after a quick whispered conversation with his advisor. “We think that, even if he didn’t know about it, Link did put Hyrule in danger… Sorry.” His advisor shook his head at the added apology and Ralis looked to the floor.

Zelda nodded, looking straight at Link. “I’m afraid I have to agree, Link. While you may not have been aware of the consequences, you will… need to face consequences.”

Darbus stood up angrily. “If this boy is imprisoned, I’ll personally break him out! If he’s killed, then Hyrule can say goodbye to any Goron support! We have your back, brother.” He nodded to Link, who gave no response, only a grimace on his silent face.

Zelda stood as well, raising her voice for the first time in months. “Peace, Patriarch!” she shouted at him, “Link will not be imprisoned nor will he face execution.”

“Oh thank the goddesses,” breathed Shad and Link’s expression softened as his jaw unclenched.

“I, Queen Zelda of Hyrule, Judge that Squire Link of Ordon Village be placed under probation. If he is involved in or the cause of any further harm to the kingdom, he will be stripped of rank and will be forbidden from entering Lanayru Province or leaving Hyrule without the escort of a member of Hyrulean court or an appointed officer.” Zelda took a moment to remember to breathe, looking down towards Link with a look of sympathy. “Do you accept these terms, Squire?”

Link only nodded at first, but a guard lightly prodded him with the butt of his spear. “Yes, your Highness.” he muttered through a dry throat.

“Then this court judges you guilty of incidental treason. You will be placed under probation until this problem is resolved.”

“Yes, your highness.”

The court went their separate ways. Ralis’s advisor nodded to Link and Darbus hit his back perhaps a bit too hard. Zelda, however, approached Link directly, making him jolt upright nervously as he always did when she wanted to see him.

“Link, I hope you know this doesn’t mean anything personal.”

“Y-Yes, your Majesty,” he stammered.

“Zelda.”

“I do, Zelda.”

She hummed and nodded slowly. “You and Shad have a plan then?”

Shad stepped forward with a relieved smile. “We do, your Maj-”

“Zelda,” she interjected a bit forcefully.

“Right! Zelda. I’m afraid I wasn’t really of a level head upon our discovery, but our friend Link here came up with a few ideas. Of course, I deem them ludicrous.”

Zelda sighed with a soft smile. “How could I expect anything less? Link?”

That smile of hers was always infectious to Link. “I thought we should bring the whole Resistance to the Arbiter’s Grounds and wait for whatever this thing is to come back. Then we stab it until it dies.”

Zelda held back a laugh and Shad sighed. “You’re going to go with this awful plan, aren’t you?”

She rested a hand on Shad’s shoulder. “Naturally. Contact Ashei and Auru for me, dear Archmage.”


	3. The Alliance: Confrontation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> funny how i said id be updating weekly, then promptly did not do that! what happened was that i got a tad discouraged by the lack of readership and just sort of let LB fall to the wayside. after some encouragement, however, i've talked it out with my muse and she's agreed to help me with only minimal bribery! this chapter's a bit longer than the others, but it's an important one. enjoy!

 

_ We, in our folly, sought to seize the Triforce ourselves. Loyalty was a petty thing compared to the unlimited power for the tribe and the Elder Ones. Only as we look back and long for the light do we see how we have failed . _

\- From "The Chronicle of Dusk" author unknown

 

While everyone seemed to be aware of the nature of Link’s plan, Shad seemed to be the only one actually grasping the concept. They were using themselves as bait for this thing; specifically, waiting for it to return home and try to kill them, with their hope being that they could kill or seal it away first. It was foolhardy and Shad was thoroughly convinced it would earn them nothing but a place on the walls where the other bodies once hung.

Ashei could sense this on him and gave his leg a soft tap with her foot. “Feeling a bit tense, archmage?”

“Well, you could say that, yes,” he said, knuckles white with his tight grip on his spellbook, “In no small part because we’re serving as bait for a creature whose only qualities we know are that it kills people and then strings them up ritualistically.”

Ashei shook her head with a soft smile, right hand resting on the rapier sheathed at her waist. “Not bait, decoys. Bait gets eaten, decoys get away. I’m in no hurry to be eaten, yeah? And it’d be a shame to have to watch you suffer that fate.”

“I just don’t understand how you can be almost… jubilant about this!” Shad protested.

“He has a point.” Auru’s soft and deep voice rang clearly from just behind them. He glanced back at the other watch shift, Link and Rusl, who they were to awaken if anything suspicious happened. “As much as I trust Link, I think we all may be underestimating the situation.”

Ashei snorted. “Yeah, you think?”

“Not like that. A demon can be handled this way. A normal one, anyway. This…” he hesitated, “This feels wrong. This room, the air, the atmosphere.” he looked to Shad, silently asking for confirmation of his suspicions.

He chewed his lip and brushed his thumb along the pages of his tome. “Well… there is certainly a latent magical energy here… and it feels drastically different from the magic of light I study, but I can’t say exactly what it is.” He looked away from Auru, feeling as though he’d let him down. “But the Arbiter’s Grounds are a veritable melting pot of dark energies, and I hate to admit that my experience with darker magic is greatly limited. I’m sorry, Auru.”

He paused for a moment, then nodded with a warm, but obviously empty smile. “Don’t worry yourself over it. I’m sure I’m just... getting paranoid with age.”

Ashei snapped to attention when she detected a faint humming. Or was it buzzing? The shrill and insectoid rattle from the darkened hole in the ceiling grew quickly louder. She drew her rapier, backed up with eyes still locked on the source, and gave the sleeping Rusl a soft kick to awaken him. "Our friend's here," she said through an excited smile.

As the buzzing grew louder, the Resistance stood at the ready, with Link and Rusl scrambling to flank Auru, Shad, and Ashei. The buzz became deafening and a cold wind rushed through to room. What looked like a storm of locusts swarmed the room and left only enough space for the five of them.

"Show yourself!" Auru commanded, a silver-tipped arrow already nocked on his ornate and ancient-looking bow.

The insects swarmed far more densely and formed two shapes: that of a tall and lithe person clad in a robe; and that of a massive sword. Link recognized the silhouette of the wielder, and immediately made the first charge with a wide swipe of his sword. Its blade disappeared into the locusts still crawling around the demon’s body and killed a good few of them, but only made the beast replenish what it had lost with a disturbing swiftness.

Rusl and Ashei ran to aid Link, making a strike each themselves while Shad watched grimly, standing beside the still-hesitating Auru.

"It isn't doing anything..." the mage muttered worriedly.

After a brief few attacks, the swordsmen halted. "It... doesn't look like anything works. Link?" Rusl looked to his protege for suggestions.

Link, in absence of an idea, replied with a bestial growl. It stopped when a high and booming voice rang through the chamber. It never spoke the last time he fought it.

"Is this all?" It said, bug-covered, skeletal face unmoving in its downward gaze, "Hehe... You disappoint me, Hero."

The creature raised the massive sword, its edge rippling with angular, purple spots of light. It laughed in a high cackle that was both demonic and disturbingly human and swung in a wide arc, moving Ashei to dive and tackle Rusl out of its way while Link's shield took the full force of the blow with a loud  _ clang . _

The locusts crawling on the demon's body dispersed around the room, each glowing with a purple and black aura, and left the skeletal and rotten form of Death Sword flying at the center of the room. "I've had nothing but time! I've gotten nothing but stronger and smarter! At least give me something  _ entertaining! _ "

An arrow glowing brilliant white shot through the demon's back and out of its chest, leaving a glowing hole which immediately began burning at the edges. While it made a pained sound, Death Sword seemed more annoyed than anything. It swung its blade to keep the three warriors on the ground while it whirled around to face its attacker.

Auru loosed a second Light Arrow, his bow glowing with the same light for the second he fired it. Shad stood by him, gesturing from his tome to imbue the wounds of the beast with the goddesses' fire.

"Back, beast!" Auru roared.

Death Sword flinched some with each blow, but still cackled with apparent glee, the insects swarming in a wide circle. "I'm enjoying these new games!" It laughed, "I'll almost miss all of you."

Within the span of a few seconds, Shad watched Auru fire another arrow, Rusl attack the beast's front, and Link and Ashei swing for its back. More disturbingly, he watched the insects begin to fly in a tightly-packed circular swarm. They glowed with purple light and shot through the air like bullets, a number denting Ashei's armor and several shooting clean through Rusl's leg.

Shad himself felt a horrible, stinging pain crawling from his shoulder, but still watched as more of the insects shot through the air to injure he and his associates, who began falling to their knees one by one. He thought quickly and flipped to a marked page in his spell tome. Two locusts pierced his thigh and brought him to one knee while he adopted the prayer-like gesture described in his notes. With barely-present breath,he forced out a single phrase: "Nayru, save me."

A spiral of blue light swirled around him and grew to surround the entire Resistance. Each beam became like a shard of glass and pushed back both Death Sword and its locusts to give the warriors an escape from the attacking insects.

Shad adopted another stance, slamming his hand to the ground and making fire burst out from the center of the room, shoving back the still-laughing demon and buying him enough time to flip to the last marked page.

"Stand close!" ordered Auru knowingly, and the other three complied.

Shad made a spiraling motion with his hands. Green and yellow light rushed around all of them and a strong wind followed it. Before any of them could register it, they were suddenly in the blinding light of Gerudo Desert. Bleeding and exhausted, Shad collapsed into the sand.

Auru grabbed Link by the shirt, equal parts terrified and furious. "What have you done?"

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'd toyed with the idea of ending it later, but the chapter was already rambling and the content i need is about another half chapter itself. so here's the deal: starting right now, i'll try to release a new chapter on the 1st and 15th of every month. if it works for night vale it should work for me, eh? so a bit of forewarning, the next chapter is gonna be on the short side, but it's coming on august 15th!


	4. The Alliance: A New Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shad's got ideas and stuff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im submitting this without editing because i am stupid and confident. this was a bad idea but its a half-length chapter and its mostly exposition. next chapter is the first of the month!

_ This material I have named Twilight Obsidian, as it seems to be a sort of Volcanic glass that resonates on an otherworldly frequency. When struck, the obsidian will vibrate and cause the surrounding air to grow dark and cool, as though the sun’s heat and light can no longer fully reach it. _

\- From "On Dimensionality and Twilight" by Professor Shad of Hyrule

 

Telma’s bar had never seen such a somber mood. Members of the Resistance often went there in place of the castle’s healing wards, and an injured knight wasn’t anything strange to the patrons, but any and all conversation stopped dead when the entire group stumbled in much worse for wear. They were all bloodied with Rusl helping Auru along and Ashei doing the same for Shad. “A plan…” Shad muttered, “We need a plan.”

Rusl collapsed into his usual seat and threw his helmet aside after helping Auru into the chair beside him. “We need the Goddesses. This isn’t something that we mere mortals can deal with.”

“If even they can help,” murmured Auru, “In all my years, I’ve never felt that kind of energy before. I’ve seen and felt some evil, twisted things, but nothing quite like this.”

Telma made a face at the old man as she carried in one hand a strong drink and in the other a thread and needle. “Yeah, cause casual blasphemy is gonna solve things. Drink this and hold still.” She set down the drink and set to work closing his wounds with the needle. “What we need to do is figure this thing out and how to beat it. None of us know, but the Resistance always knows somebody who does.” Astonishingly, she winked at Link.

Link, who had elected to simply endure his wounds until he could tend to them himself, was shocked. He hadn’t told anybody but Ilia about his partner during the Twilight Crisis, and even she didn’t believe him without some convincing. Still, she had a point. He spoke up. “I need to go into the Twilight Realm.”

Every one of the bar’s patrons, save for Telma, looked up at him. “Not possible,” Auru said reluctantly, “You’d need the Mirror of Twilight for that and it’s been shattered. No way to repair it.”

Ashei was ever defiant. “Someone built it, yeah? We just need to do that.”

“You say that as though something built by the sages is easy to replicate,” Rusl reminded her, “We don’t exactly have a schematic or any of the knowledge they had.”

Shad suddenly placed his notebook on the table, his eyes shining in a manner they hadn’t seen since he cast his first spell. “Twilight Obsidian!” he blurted out, pointing to the untidily scrawled Hylian text. “After Link cleared the Goron Mines, they found something in the newer expanses. A comparatively tiny vein of glass.”

“How exactly did they find glass in a mine?” interrupted Ashei.

Auru was quick to explain. “Natural glass. It happened rarely in the deeper caves in the desert. Lava melted the sand and formed it into the walls.”

“More precisely, volcanic glass. Strong stuff made of strong sediments,” Shad continued. He pointed to another block of text and read his note out loud. “Furthermore, the Obsidian seems to be responsive to magical energy, with Light magic causing its latent energy to die down and Dark magic causing the opposite. As for our lack of schematics for the Mirror,” he flipped the page to a detailed sketch of the Mirror of Twilight, with each component labeled multiple times with different terms. “I’ve had a few theories. The strongest of them is the Corestone design. All we need to do is gather another large enough sample of Obsidian and a Corestone charged with dark magic. Suggestions, anyone?”

“Without the Arbiter’s Grounds as an option… There’s one place I can think of where we could find Dark magic artifacts. Deeper into the desert. An old Gerudo temple should have the more dangerous things kept there for safekeeping.” Auru said contemplatively.

“Sounds like quite the adventure. Link?” Rusl gave his old protege a smile and got a nod in return.

“Perfect. Now the only other volcano in Hyrule, though dormant, is Snowpeak,” Shad continued, “Ashei?”

“I think you should go with her, honey. Make sure she knows what she’s looking for and all.” Telma smiled at Shad as she finished stitching up Auru’s wounds.

Shad nodded. “It’s settled then. Auru will taken Rusl and Link to the Gerudo temple while Ashei and I will search snowpeak for more Obsidian. I’ll then work with Rusl to form the Mirror parts and we’ll put it together at the castle.”

Ashei grabbed him by the arm and excitedly dragged him for the door. “Let’s go then! Finally an excuse to see Yeta!”

Shad struggled and failed to find purchase with his dragging feet. “Yeta??”


	5. The Mage: The Ancient Bastion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shad and Ashei discover a possible source of Twilight Obsidian in the peaks of Snowpeak: The abandoned final bastion of a troop of ancient warriors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> terribly sorry about the missed update! my only excuse is that im a terrible person with no impulse control. in an effort to make it up to you guys and hope that you will stick with my pandering trash, this chapter is more than twice as long as the previous ones! enjoy!

_ Of course, with the existence of the Twilight Realm, this opens up the possibility of multiple other dimensions parallel to that of Hyrule and her neighbors. Most notable amongst these theoretical realms is a land that was supposedly visited by the Hero of Time himself. Unfortunately, original texts are difficult to come by, and only allusions can be found in secondhand historical documents from that era. _

\- From "On Dimensionality and Twilight" by Professor Shad of Hyrule

 

Shad had only been to the peaks of Snowpeak once before with his father. He didn’t remember hating it any less then, either. The cold wind was made easier to bear by the heavy wool cloak Yeta had made for him, but not even the thick furry cloth could stop his shivering or clear his snow and wind-blurred vision. Ashei, on the other hand, seemed right at home in the storm. She scanned the horizon, squinting behind the goggles built into her helmet, and held up an arm when she spotted a sharp line jutting out from the face of the mountains. Shad stopped in his place, hugging his cloak tightly around himself.

“You see something?” he shouted.

She spoke calmly back.

“Ashei, though I’m certain you’re trying to communicate, muffled is not one of my linguistic masteries.”

Ashei gave him an exaggerated nod and pointed to the outcropping she’d spotted. Both knew it must have been the carving Yeto had mentioned back at the mansion.

“I find near mountaintop when foraging,” he’d told them, “Strange place with strange markings. Yeto avoid there whenever he can. Give him bad vibes, uh!”

“Well, it’s a carving. And it’s near the mountaintop. So we have at least  _ something _ to go on.” Said Shad, following closely behind Ashei as she made for the object.

 

When they arrived, the pair could easily understand what Yeto meant by “bad vibes”. They stood before a large rectangular wall carved into the side of the mountain. On its surface were a number of ripples and grooves that would seem like natural erosion if they were found on a riverbed. The design of the carving was hard to place, with each curve seeming to suddenly jut in the opposite direction as soon as it began to form a coherent shape. More disturbingly, the wind around them seemed to come to a standstill as soon as they got close to the wall. In front of the wall stood a circular platform of a lighter-colored stone than the wall itself, surrounded by a circle of wooden twigs sticking out from the snow seemingly at random.

Ashei finally removed her helmet in the relative shelter the wall afforded them. “This make any sense to you, Shad?”

Shad slowly approached the wall and brushed his hand over its surface. “It feels… warm,” he thought out loud, “Ashei, would you mind digging some of this snow out of the way? I want a better look at this structure.”

“Sounds like somebody found their confidence,” Ashei said, digging through the small pack she wore for a pair of old-looking digging mitts.

“Well the wind has died down and we’ve run into a wall covered in symbols. At least I’m in my element.” He cracked a smile and ran his palm along the wavy surface of the wall. While Ashei dug, he searched through his notebook for any sort of artifact or symbol that matched what he saw.

“Found something!” Called Ashei, one of her mitts stuck into the ground beside a wooden stake. “Looks like this thing is an old torch or something. This stuff in the top is flammable, yeah?”

Shad looked at the old torch thoroughly, stopping at where it met the ground with the memory of an old book returning to him. “Hold on a moment… Check around those other stakes. I have an idea.” The torch they’d uncovered had been standing at the apex of a long curve carved into ground. Nearer the stone platform was another congruent, but smaller curve. Shad figured it must be a circle with the platform at its center, which usually indicated a Fire Seal, one of the tricks used during the Hyrulean Civil War.

Sure enough, Ashei managed to uncover a few more torches before Shad had her stop digging and meet him in the center of the platform. He flipped to the marked pages of his notebook. “Er… stay close. Last time I cast this was in Telma’s bar and it went… well it went horrifically wrong if I’m being honest.”

Ashei snickered and did as he said, standing as close as would be comfortable. “You have my confidence, archmage,” She hummed, “Just try not to kill me, yeah?”

Shad gave a nod, too busy concentrating on the notes before him to respond verbally. He shut his eyes and muttered a few phrases in ancient Hylian. A distant voice called back curtly; feminine and powerful, and implacably familiar. when he felt a powerful heat rise from his clenched fists and crawl up the lengths of his arms, he forcefully brought one hand to his side and the other slamming to the ground palm first.

A massive red-orange dome crawled out from his hand and surrounded he and Ashei, melting the snow and drying the frozen wood of the torches. Ashei stood as close as she could get and a spiral of flame swirled around them as the heated dome shrunk back towards them. It scorched the carved stone ground and lit the thick grease covering the tops of each torch. The torrent of fire quickly burned out and the pair stood to watch a purple light crawl from the freshly-lit torches along the circles on the ground and up to the wall itself. The light flowed along the curves in the stone like water, tracing intricate shapes and making different portions glow with different intensity. In the chaotically-curving lines, the light revealed a distinctive shape: that of a large heart surrounded with spikes and completed with a pair of large, circular eyes.

“I… don’t recognize that,” Shad admitted, “Ashei?”

Ashei had been clinging to his side rather uncharacteristically and, in an awkward rush, righted herself and cocked a brow at the symbol. “I never came to this peak before. It’s all you, Archmage.”

Shad took a step towards the wall and froze in place when it began to sink into the ground. As it sank, the light pooling in the curves flowed between different parts of the rock, making it appear as though the emblem was tilting curiously, even playfully side to side. The wall slowly disappeared into the thawed ground and left a dark stairway that led sharply downward, into the mountain itself.

“Well, that looks promising!” Ashei said, stepping forward towards the entrance. “Any guess as to what this place is?”

“A temple maybe? It all depends on what that odd symbol was…”

Ashei simply nodded and made for the dark steps. She flicked a bit of flint against the edge of her gauntlet to spark the lantern she’d retrieved from its place hanging from her belt. Even the bright flame struggled to cut through the encroaching darkness. Shad, though hesitant to follow, was more hesitant to be left behind, and stuck close to the knight.

 

The pair kept their gaze moving, Shad with nervous and curious darting and Ashei with vigilant and constant scanning. Whenever she detected movement, her hand instinctively rested on her rapier, but nothing jumped out at them besides a few clouds of ancient dust from their feet. Before long, the hall flared out into a central chamber with the same heart-shaped symbol laid into the ground.

“Hold a moment, Ashei. Let’s get our bearings.” Shad said a bit more softly than intended. She nodded and set her lantern in the center of the floor, turning the small brass knob on its side to intensify the flame at the cost of a bit more fuel consumption. Shad made a face at the corners illuminated by the larger light source. In a few corners were piled-up bones covered in faded blueish wrappings that appeared to at one point have been clothes. They lay at each of the three exits, beside bare and rotting wooden racks that once held weaponry, and flanking a huge door kept shut with huge chains and no apparent lock. He moved towards one and took his glove off, actively suppressing the memories of the atrocities he and Link encountered at the Arbiter’s Grounds.

“What’re you doing?” Ashei asked, peering curiously over his shoulder.

Shad narrowed his eyes at the clothes on the bones, searching his memory for any sort of theory. “Trying to find out who these people were. These racks were almost certainly Civil War era, but I never heard of anyone venturing into the Snowpeak Range during such a dangerous time…” He gingerly unwrapped a tabard from one of the skeletons and held it up to the light, where he could make out the faded red marks in it center. “It feels too soft to be wool, and average Hylians didn’t have much access to cotton... Gerudo make maybe?”

“If I need a yeti pelt to survive out here, a Gerudo couldn’t survive even if they were on fire.” quipped Ashei.

“True enough. Let me see…” Shad brought the cloth to the lantern and held it taut, then dipped its end into the fire. He shook his head as it quickly burnt away in a typical orange flame. “Whoever this was either recently got new clothing or wasn’t a magic-user. Fabric exposed regularly to magic burns slowly and in different colors.”

“So what you’re saying is that we should burn anything and everything flammable we run into?” Ashei said, a glint in her eyes.

“Well not  _ everything _ of course. I need something to go off of. But you have my word that all burning duties will be delegated to you, my aggressive friend.”

Ashei snorted and took the lantern again, turning down its flame some. “I’ll make you proud. Which way, Archmage?”

He took a moment to examine each body for any variation in clothing style, then the large chained door. “Well that way isn’t an option. I’d say left. Seems this poor soul was headed that way anyway.”

Another nod from Ashei and they were off.

 

The next hallway was significantly shorter and brought them into what seemed to have been an archive. Upon realizing this, Ashei sighed and Shad lit up with excitement.

“Ashei! Do you know what this is?”

“Recordkeeping?”

“Precisely! Keep the light near me. I’m going to see if there’s anything still intact.”

Shad moved quickly between the sparsely-packed shelves, running his fingers over scrolls and bits of decaying paper. He picked up a few of them, frowned, then set them back in place. “Nothing. It’s all meaningless checklists or unreadable.”

Ashei tapped the hilt of her sword impatiently. “There has to be something. We didn’t come all this way to find nothing but some dusty shopping lists, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Shad replied offhandedly. Near the center of the far end of the room, a large and cluttered table caught his eye. “Would you light that, Ashei?”

The light moved toward the table, revealing another pile of bones robed in the same type of clothing as those in the previous room. At least, the cloth was the same material and color. The style, however, was entirely different. A large white cloth covering the entire head and lower portion of the face, then continued down into a flowing cloak with a red eye marked into the center. A darker blue fabric was fitted to where the contours of the body would be had the flesh still been attached to the bone.

Shad reached out for the scattered papers in front of the corpse. Each of them was astonishingly preserved, but written in a tongue he didn’t recognize and covered in symbols he could hardly comprehend. A short, six-character word kept repeating on pages that held the same emblem as the door and the central chamber.

“They appeared to be studying...” Shad thought out loud.

Ashei said nothing, but drew her sword.

“What on earth are you-” He stood back to look at the cause of her alarm. Floating several feet above the table was a translucent figure, clothed in the very same robes as the corpse at the desk and glaring at them with vibrant red eyes that matched the red eye-shaped emblem on the front of his cloak.

Shad stepped back slowly. “H-Hello?”

“Hylian.” The ghost said suddenly and venomously. “Why have you come here?”

Shad hesitated and Ashei moved slowly to the front of him. “We… we’re searching for a material. A type of magical glass.”

The ghost flew suddenly downward. “I know what you speak of. The same material your people used for their genocide.” he growled, his deep and accented voice echoing around the room.

“N-No, we-”

“Quiet, Hylian.” The ghost hissed, raising his arms to cross over one another. “Your goddesses cannot save you here, and cannot hope to stop what is to come.”

“Move!” Ashei ordered, shoving Shad out of the way of the line of purple light that slashed vertically towards him when the ghost brought his hands down and flew high into the air. The magic cut easily through her gauntlet to make a nasty gash in her left forearm, which she ignored with a sharp grunt.

Ashei pointed her sword at the ghost and took an upright and limber stance, ready to dodge out of the way of any further magical attacks.

Shad stumbled from the shove she’d given him, but turned back around to face the ghost. His mind raced for solutions; traps were out of the question and with the way this ghost had moved fleeing was as well. That left him with magic. Magic he could work with. A second blast of energy shot towards Ashei, who raised her left arm in the hopes of absorbing it with the thicker armor. Shad immediately reacted with the spell he knew best.

A blue gem conjured around Ashei and dissipated the magic of the ghost. Shad tore his mind from the spell and the gem shattered, blue shards flying out in a circle from Ashei and striking both he and the ghost, both of whom recoiled in pain. The stinging from Shad’s wounds, however, was lessened by a single thought:  _ That worked! _

Ashei quickly picked up on what seemed to work on the ghost and sought to make herself useful however she could. She moved behind Shad and stayed close as the ghost began flying around them until it turned nearly invisible. She kept her eyes scanning until she spotted a ripple in the air. “Low! Your left!” she called.

With only a moment to react, Shad cast Nayru’s Love in the spot Ashei had indicated, but let the spell fail only halfway through manifesting. This made the gem that appeared shatter immediately and tear through the shimmering clothing of the barely-visible spirit. He howled in pain and flew directly for them.

Shad’s confidence and adrenaline-boosted mind had him thinking quickly and more experimentally. “Sword!” he called to Ashei, who didn’t have time to question his intentions and instead brought her arm backward so the rapier in her hand was in his reach. In a fraction of a second, he tapped the hilt and focused the spell around the thin blade. “Now!”

With a loud grunt, Ashei lunged for the ghost, Shad released his focus, and the blue light surrounding the blade shattered. With an unearthly shriek, the ghost was torn apart from the inside by the whirling crystal shards. As suddenly as it appeared, it vanished, leaving behind a dark purple sphere floating where its head once was.

The two of them, panting, watched as it rushed for the hall they had entered through. They both instinctively chased it back into the central chamber, where it shot into one of the two chains and caused it to crumble to dust.

They both stood in relative silence, Shad trembling with adrenaline and Ashei deeply inhaling to regain control of her breathing. “I guess we have a plan now,” she said to him with a smile, “Yeah?”

Shad had to smile back after such an unfamiliar success. “It would seem so. Head that way, hope we don’t die, then head this way and hope whatever is deeper into this damned place doesn’t also try to kill us.”

Ashei gave a short laugh and sheathed her sword. “Evil spirits blasting us with magic. Sounds like fun to me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in all honesty, i thought about going through the whole of the ancient bastion with this chapter, but that'd be around 10-12 pages in word and that seems a bit excessive. plan is to make the next chapter the latter half of the dungeon, but if you guys would rather jump to link's trip to the desert, feel free to comment! i'll be trying to work on both at the same time so we'll make it a choose your own adventure, yeah?


	6. The Mage: Fear the Elder One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shad and Ashei confront the second half of the Ancient Bastion. The answers given only beget more questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're back in business! sorry about the long pause. due to a number of factors, i was a bit incapacitated in my writing. regular updates should be back in business, with at least one chapter and up to 2 chapters per month, depending on the length. this update is short because i wanted to make the final boss of the Bastion into something as awesome as i can, so i'll be putting that in the next chapter. for those interested in what link is up to, not to worry! he'll be visited after these two get that dang ol' core. thanks for sticking around, and enjoy!

_ The identity of the Twili is a difficult concept to put a definition to. With such limited access to texts and such nonexistent access to Twili scholars at this juncture, their history is as elusive as it is enticing. Unfortunately, the pitfall that countless mages have run into is the pursuit of unattainable knowledge. Perhaps some things were simply not meant to be known. _

\- From "On Dimensionality and Twilight" by Professor Shad of Hyrule

 

Shad and Ashei stood squarely in front of the other hall, Shad scraping up every scrap of nerve he could and Ashei pretending she didn’t need to do the same. “So we have a plan this time, yeah?” Ashei asked to finally break the deafening silence.

“Of sorts. We know that magic can hurt these ghosts and that our little sword trick worked flawlessly. That said, I advise we avoid getting cornered this time.”

Ashei snorted, taking a step into the hall and giving Shad a nudge forward. “Oh you have to admit that was a bit fun. Having each other’s backs and focusing our skills together, I mean.”

Shad gave her half a nod and a thoughtful hum, which earned a small kick to the calf to get his attention. “Sorry, sorry! I’m still trying to piece these things together. That ghost was clearly a Sheikah. The robes matched ancient uniforms of their sorcerers. But then, why would he attack us? It’s curious, Ashei.”

She shrugged. “Maybe he was just an ass?”

“Fair enough,” he said with a half-contained grin, “Don’t worry yourself thinking about it. I’ll focus on the historical implications while we handle the practical bits together.”

The hall on the other side was, for practical purposes, identical to the one they'd already explored, except that it ended in a wide room filled with the remains of wooden tables and beds, some of which still held skeletons of dead Sheikah. Shad and Ashei froze near the center of the room when a ghost in identical clothing to the previous one stood motionless at the far end of the room. It didn't attack, but simply stared.

Ashei took a step forward with her hand on the hilt of her rapier while Shad called Din's Fire into his mind, ready for quick use.

"Why do you defile our final resting place, Hylians?" The ghost's voice was decidedly female, with an airy quality made chilling by the echoing wispiness of undeath. “Are you not satisfied with the lives you have stamped out already?”

“We mean you no harm,” replied Shad calmly, making an effort to keep his hands visible. “You are Sheikah, correct?”

The ghost moved evenly towards them and Ashei tensed her grip on her blade. “Shad?”

He kept his focus on the ghost. “We don’t have any quarrel with the Sheikah or their dead, friend. Hyrule hasn’t been at war for decades, and I’m nothing more than a scholar.”

The ghost paused, then nodded to Ashei. “And you?”

“His counterpart,” she replied bluntly, “And I don’t fight until you do. Keep that in mind, yeah?”

The ghost stood a few feet from them with her arms crossed behind her back, red eyes periodically switching the target for their piercing gaze, sweeping back and forth. “You killed my associate. In the archives.”

“He attacked us first!” Ashei defensively replied.

The ghost nodded. “He was enraged by the sight of the enemy. Your kind  _ were _ responsible for the banishment and slaughter of our people, after all.” She paused, watching them closely, “But… that was an age ago. We have lost the war and any further resistance would be petty.”

The silence that followed was a complex one, layered with confusion from the Hylians and sorrow from the undead Sheikah. Shad stepped up to break it in a soft and reverent voice. “I’m truly sorry for every atrocity your people went through, Sheikah, and we will happily leave your resting place after we find at least a means of getting what we came for.” The ghost nodded slowly. “An uh… artifact. Made of black glass. If I’m correct in my research, it should be some sort of focus for powerful magic.”

“A Twilight core. History tells me not to trust Hylians with such power.” The ghost hissed, her eyebrow raising up behind her headwraps.

Ashei stepped forward, her hand falling from her rapier. “We need it to save lives,” she said with the slightest bit of aggression in her tone. “Something is out there slaughtering anything it can get its hands on, arranging them in some kind of magic circle. Does that sound pleasant?”

The ghost hesitated. “This creature. It’s using bodies to perform a summoning?”

“We believe so, yes.” Shad said, nodding.

“Then your fate is already sealed.” Said the ghost, her voice slow, with a barely-audible tremble.

Shad and Ashei froze in place. The Sheikah’s words had a thousand questions racing through their minds. Before either could voice them, she spoke again.

“I am sorry. The Sheikah may have, in a sense doomed you to your fate. The Elder One is trying to enter our realm once again.”

Ashei growled, drawing her sword and aiming its tip at the Sheikah. “Then you owe us a chance, Sheikah. Let us be the judge of how doomed we are.”

“The Sheikah you killed would consider this poetic justice.”

Shad and Ashei tensed up, shifting their weight towards one another.

“But you make a wise judgement, if not a knowledgeable one.”

The ghost gave a shaky breath. “Do not make the same mistakes as the Sheikah, Hylians. Fear the Elder One, and fear the name Majora.”

In a flash of blue light, the ghost disappeared, leaving behind the same burning orb as the other had after Shad and Ashei had defeated him. It hovered down the hall and they turned to follow it.

“Majora…” Shad repeated.

“You recognize it?”

“No. That’s what troubles me.”

The orb went back into the main chamber and, as before, spread across the remaining chain across the door. It cracked and fell away, leaving the door ready to be opened. Ashei drew her rapier again and stood squarely in the center of the doorway, her eyes shut and her breath even to ensure her mind was prepared for a conflict. “I doubt whatever’s behind here will be as friendly as our undead friend back there. Ready, Archmage?”

Shad looked at her with some bewilderment. “You’re smiling.”

“I get to help you destroy something. How could I not be?”

Shad rubbed his chin and flipped open his spellbook. “I appreciate the gesture, Ashei, but now may not be the time. This Majora is bothering me.”

Ashei rested her free hand on his shoulder. “Save it for later, Archmage. If you get distracted, you get defeated. I’ll never forgive you if you die, so try to keep that from happening, yeah?”

Shad took a breath. “Yeah. I’ll stay focused.”

“Good! Let’s fight a… something.” With a rough pat on Shad’s back, she grabbed the grooves on the door and pulled.  



	7. Corrupted Conjurer: Sheikah Caller

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for a boss fight!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy belated annoy squidward day (it was the 15th) and thanks for reading! let me know what you think in the comments

_Beware the Callers, for Majora’s corruption will seek its servants first._

 

Shad could see only pure darkness when he and Ashei entered the central chamber of the ruin. He stopped feeling her presence beside him and could hear only a faint howling of the blizzard against the rocks outside. “Ashei?” he called. No response. With tensed muscles, he mentally flipped through his notes. A more high-strung mage might’ve gone with a fire in the dark, but he hesitated to do so. Instead, he muttered a defiant incantation and his right fist began to glow with a pale green, almost white, light. It cut through the intense, thick darkness, and Shad froze in place.

 

Ashei twirled her rapier in her hand and shifted the guard on her offhand wrist, both habits she’d picked up whenever she was tense, since actually getting tense could mean death for a knight utilizing a dueling style like hers. It wasn’t the inability to see that bothered her. She’d fought blind before in her training, but she’d never actually _felt_ the darkness encroaching upon her. A sudden light appeared and she pointed the end of her rapier directly at it, her jaw tightly set. “Shad?” She stepped towards him, then looked at the point he was frozen staring at.

 

Hovering motionlessly a mere few feet away was a humanoid, but disturbingly inhuman figure with blue and red robes draped heavily over its shoulders, obscuring its arms which presumably hung at its sides. It towered over the two of them with its head hung lazily and its face covered by a pristine white mask adorned with a crimson eye painted in what could only be blood. Ashei was the first to approach, and the moment her sword flicked across the fabric of the creature’s robes, its head snapped up and a harsh purple light flicked open from the uncovered one of its eyes.

 

The room around them suddenly came to life with the same purple light, with lines appearing on the floor in the shape of a spiked heart with the creature at its center. The creature gave an airy growl, which became almost bestial as the light from its eye became more intense. With a sudden, animated movement, the creature slammed down into the center of the circular room and pushed Shad and Ashei back with a great wave of dark magical force. In one hand, it held a curved and jagged-edged blade nearly half the size of its body. In the other, dark purple, thorny vines crawled and curled around its arm.

 

Shad and Ashei responded reflexively, with the latter brandishing her sword and the former incanting to Din to conjure bright flames that swirled around his arms. “You look ready,” Ashei commented with a grin, then charged at the creature.

 

The two of them clashed blades, with the guard on Ashei’s steel rapier locking the creature’s blade and glaring defiantly at its masked face. She put all her might into a swing to her right and raised her armored left arm to catch the back end of the creature’s blade on her forearm. She threw a kick at the side of its leg and made to stab into its side, but failed to see the thorny vine shooting to wrap around her leg and pull her to the floor. The creature raised its blade and brought it down towards her torso.

 

Shad cast a torrent of flame at the creature, the sheer force of it pushing its arm off course and clashing its blade against the stone. In retaliation, the creature withdrew the vines from Ashei’s now mildly-injured leg and swung them at Shad like a whip. His mind raced, but couldn’t think of a proper counter, instead resorting to Nayru’s Love to surround him in a magically-impenetrable blue shield. While it effectively negated the magically-controlled tendrils, it would be near useless against the giant blade that followed it in a fierce charge into a sideways swipe.

 

Ashei charged after the creature and took the opportunity to slash its back, making a deep, glowing gash in the dark purple skin beneath its robes. It made a high-pitched, metallic growl in pain and followed its swing to crash into the ground where Ashei was before she nimbly jumped to the side. “Too slow, beast,” she taunted.

 

Shad learned from Ashei’s opportunistic attack, and crouched down with his hands facing each other. Ashei watched him while she dueled blow-for-blow with the creature, sword clashing and vines being cut before they could interfere. He called out to Din’s presence in the air and it rapidly began to grow hotter around his hands and arms until small embers leapt between his palms and smoke began to rise. He grit his teeth and, once the air was charged with intense magical energy, he swung his arms forward while Ashei judged that as the moment to feint into a roll for the creature’s back.

 

Ashei narrowly avoided the massive column of rolling fire that consumed the creature as it slammed its sword back against the ground. Its robes burned away and left behind the lithe creature curled motionlessly with its blade embedded into the hard stone of the ground. Shad had fallen back from the force of the spell and Ashei wound up sitting on the ground with her sword arm still towards the creature. Under its robes were criss-crossed purple and green tendrils lined with thorns that seemed to crawl along its form, clinging to it like a parasite and digging into its flesh.

"Is it dead?" asked Shad, his breath short from the heavy exertion both physical and mental from such a powerful spell. Ashei pushed herself to her feet and brandished her sword, her left arm crossed over her upper body.

 

The creature began to move again, this time with more jerking and erratic movements, with the tendrils wrapping around its limbs and working it like a puppet. It stood again while Shad backed away to formulate a response. This time, it left the blade in the floor, with the tendrils crawling around its arms like two sets of spiked whips. Instead of the cold, almost metallic cry it gave before, the creature let out a high-pitched and hasty laugh, then savagely attacked Shad.

 

It spun at him, whips cutting a nasty gash into his leg and the arm he'd raised in defence. He called upon Nayru once again, and the spell protected him for a time, until the unrelenting battering from the creature began to crack the walls of his conjured shield. "Ashei!" he called desperately.

 

"Yeah, mage!" she responded through gritted teeth. Ashei waited until the creature had its vine wrapped around Shad's magical barrier, then went for a swift upward strike at the bottom of its head. The creature reeled back, which Ashei used to slash and bring it to its knees. With a loud cry, she performed a quick series of slashes, finished with a nimble flourish complemented by a punch from the metal gauntlet on her left hand.

 

The creature laughed once more, a crack appearing on the white surface of its mask. Shad was greatly intrigued by this crack. "Ashei," he called while he stood and reconjured the flames around his arms, "The mask!" He blasted the creature with another gout of fire, managing to channel enough energy into the spell to burn through the whips as they regrew into the creature's swipes. He walked defiantly towards it, keeping the fire steadily pouring over it.

 

Ashei cut cleanly through one of its whips and managed to land a strike with the pommel of her sword right across its face. Another crack shot through the mask, and the laughter started turning into a feral snarling.

 

Shad spoke a curt incantation to Din, and felt his arms grow hot as a familiarly warm and smooth voice responded in the ancient Hylian tongue he spoke. He moved to make an open-palmed strike squarely on the creature's mask, which cracked it a third time with a powerful explosion from his palm.

 

Ashei jumped over the mage while he ducked down and threw a punch at the now-dazed creature. Its head snapped right.

 

Shad stood up into another strike with his yet-unused arm. The creature's head snapped left.

 

Ashei slashed, Shad cast a blue barrier around her sword. The cut on the creature's mask from her sword let the blue material flow into the other cracks and force them apart. The mask shattered and blue crystal shard tore up the creature's head to howls and shrieks of pain and desperation. After a few final twitches in pain, the vines began to rapidly dry and lock into place, leaving the creature to stand like a grotesque, headless statue before crumbling into black dust.

 

Ashei and Shad stood with their shoulders nearly together and their stances still ready to attack until the creature collapsed, after which Shad released his breath and clasped a hand desperately to Ashei's shoulder.

 

"That was," he panted, doubled-over from exhaustion, "Horrific."

 

Ashei laughed at him. "Revel in your victory a bit, Shad." She sheathed her sword and set her hand over his. "Archmage Shad. You make an old-fashioned knight like me seem out-dated."

 

"Far from it." The purple light from the floor began to recede, and the floor itself began to sink into a circular bowl shape with a column in its center. "Goddesses I hope this is something good."

 

The floor stopped sinking and the pillar split open. Out poured numerous ancient-looking artifacts: a few masks, a sword, a bow, a lamp, all made of the same shining black material. Ashei supported the exhausted Shad while she looked over the treasure trove of pure Twilight Obsidian. "Looks like something good." She hummed snarkily.

 

"Thank _every_ goddess." Shad dropped to sit on the floor and Ashei sat beside him. "If you don't mind, I'd like us to recover first, then worry about getting these back to Castle Town."

 

Ashei patted him on the back. "I've never had a better partner, Archmage. We probably made it look easy compared to Link's group."

 

Shad looked at Ashei, who gave him a smile and a wink, then subtly scooted closer. He wasn't certain how to respond, but a smile of his own crept up on the corners of his mouth until he cleared his throat and looked away. He hoped she hadn't seen that dumb look on his face.

 

"I saw that, Shad."

 

Damn it all.


End file.
